Bite Me The Show About Edibles
Helping cooks make great cannabis edibles at home.
Create your own tasty, healthy cannabis edibles and take control of your high life! Bite Me is a weekly show that helps home cooks make fun, safe and effective cannabis edibles. Listen as host Margaret walks you through an marijuana infused recipe that she has tested in her home kitchen or interviews with expert guests. New episodes every Thursday.
Bite Me The Show About Edibles
Transform Your Edibles with Vanessa Lavorato
Vanessa Lavorato revolutionizes cannabis cooking with groundbreaking research that challenges everything we thought we knew about making edibles. The pioneering host of Vice's Bong Appetit and author of How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time reveals that 50% of cannabinoid extraction occurs within the first 30 seconds of infusion—not the hours many recipes suggest.
Forget what you've heard about indica versus sativa edibles. Vanessa explains why these distinctions are largely meaningless when cannabis is consumed rather than smoked. Instead, she focuses on understanding cannabinoid profiles and practical dosing strategies that acknowledge reality: nobody eats just one cookie. Her approach to "ethical dosing" ensures everyone can have an enjoyable experience without unexpected intensity.
We dive deep into practical techniques that will transform your edibles game: using parchment paper pouches during decarboxylation to prevent THC degradation, working with concentrates for precise dosing, and why peanut butter might make your edibles hit harder. Vanessa shares the frustrations of being a woman in the cannabis industry, where despite conducting rigorous testing and research, she still faces skepticism from those who've never run a single experiment themselves.
Whether you're new to cannabis cooking or an experienced edibles maker looking to refine your craft, this episode delivers practical wisdom that will save you time and improve your results. Discover why microdosing represents the future of edibles, allowing more controlled experiences that fit seamlessly into active lifestyles. Ready to revolutionize your approach to cannabis cuisine? Listen now and transform how you infuse.
Want to get your own copy of Vanessa's book? Grab it here.
Visit the website for full show notes, free dosing calculator, recipes and more.
Welcome back, friends, to episode 295, and today I'm thrilled to sit down with Vanessa Lavorado. Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your high life. I'm your host and certified ganger, Margaret, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home. I'm so glad you're here. Welcome back, friends, to another episode. There won't be much preamble today because I'm excited to get into this conversation and to share it with you.
Speaker 1:You might know Vanessa from the Vice show Bon Appetit, which was the first cannabis cooking show on the internet. You might know her from Marigold Sweets. You might know her from her brand new cookbook, how to Eat Weed and have a Good Time. Or maybe you're just learning about Vanessa today on this episode of Bite Me. Regardless, you will pull something from this episode.
Speaker 1:I am sure we cover a lot of interesting stuff in this episode, such as working with concentrates in your edibles. How much do cultivars matter when you're making edibles? How long do you really need to infuse for terpenes versus cannabinoids, and a whole lot more. There's no way you're going to listen to this episode and not come away with something new. No matter where you are in your cannabis edibles maker's journey. I've been making edibles for a long time and I definitely pulled away some new things that I'm going to be experimenting with. So, without further ado, please enjoy this fascinating conversation with Vanessa Lavorato. All right, everyone, I am very excited today to be joined by Vanessa Laverado. And Vanessa, you are coming out with a new cookbook how to Eat Weed and have a Good Time which I'm really excited to share. And can you just take a second to introduce the listeners of Bite Me, who you are? Tell us a little bit about yourself. We're going to get into it, of course, during this interview, but just to get us picked off.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm so excited to be here. I love what you're doing, so thank you for having me. I think there needs to be more education about edibles and eating cannabis. I'm Vanessa Lavorato. You might know me from Bon Appetit on Munchies, vice Munchies, the first cannabis cooking show on television, and since then I have spent a lot of time writing this cookbook, which is called how to Eat Weed and have a Good Time Real emphasis on that, have a good time part of the title and I make edibles. That's what I do. I've been doing that since 2010 as Marigold Sweets. I also have a club of edible enthusiasts around the world. We're an international club called the Edibles Club and I cook for them live every Saturday and then we sesh on Wednesdays. So very active in the cannabis community and excited to be branching out and meeting more amazing people as this book starts to go out into the world.
Speaker 1:Right. So you have been deeply immersed into the edibles space for quite some time. I could say you're probably a pioneer in the edible space. And what initially sparked your interest in infused cuisine?
Speaker 2:Well, honestly, I tell this story in my book, but my mom, when she first told me about my uncles, they left a plate of pot brownies out. They lived on. They live. My one uncle lives on Kauai and so she was there visiting them, didn't tell her that there was anything in the brownies out. My one uncle lives on Kauai and so she was there visiting them, didn't tell her that there was anything in the brownies. She ate the entire plate because, like, let's be real, no one eats one brownie. And she did not have a good time. So she told me that story as like a warning sign.
Speaker 2:But of course in my brain I was like, oh, you can eat weed. I didn't know you could do that. And it was like I can bypass this whole kind of smoking ritual, which was a little bit intimidating for me when I was younger. And then I was like, oh, I can put it into food which I had been cooking since I was a little kid. You know I was three when my grandma would put me in front of the pot and be like stir. So that was really the spark in my brain. And then, when I was a senior at Berkeley, I just saw what was out in the market at the time. I had a medical card and it was like snickerdoodles wrapped in saran wrap and if there was dosing it would be like triple X or something. It was like no more than a thousand.
Speaker 2:Whatever, they would just make it up. And I was like, wow, so people can't even eat an entire edible and they're stale. Everything was stale because no one wants a snickerdoodle that's been sitting around for a month, but when you put pot into it, nobody wants to get rid of it. So everyone's eating crumbs of like overdosed small, like stale cookies. And I was like, well, listen there's more we can do with this. It's such a cool plant that you can cook with it in so many different ways.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and I love that you mentioned that. When, as soon as you have, like, no one wants to eat the stale edible but no one also wants to get rid of it, because I feel like that is so true, you're like, oh, but I don't want to throw it away, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's expensive. It's an expensive herb. Think about what we pay per pound, and then you think about what we pay per pound for other things. It's on par with saffron and other herbs that are very, very expensive by weight, and so we want to be thoughtful when we're cooking with it. We don't want to be wasteful. I mean, I live in a land of plenty. Right, there is weed galore in California. This is the epicenter of. We just have the land. We have the history. Humboldt, the green triangle, has been around forever not forever, but for generations.
Speaker 2:It's a rich history. So so I'm not. I don't need to be stingy, but I do know what it is like to be like. I cannot waste a crumb of this because I don't know when I'm going to get more of it. You know it's hard, it's more difficult to come by, so that's how I treat it as a very expensive ingredient. So we need to be thoughtful with how we cook with it and you don't. Wonderful thing about edibles is you don't need that much when you're cooking with it versus when you're smoking. So, from like a stretching your supply mindset, edibles are a great way to do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree, and especially those folks out there who are also using the AVB from their dry herb vaporizer. I mean that's a very definite way to stretch your cannabis a little bit further, and I've definitely eaten edibles that probably weren't so fresh just because of that same feeling. So I know, because even if you do live in the land of plenty I'm in Canada it's been legal here for a while, so there's no shortage, but you still have to go go out and buy it, decarb it, infuse it, like all those steps. So you want to make it last as long as you can. But just talking about Bon Appetit for a little bit, because you said like it introduced a lot of people to the idea of gourmet cannabis cuisine, because it was the first cooking show online around cannabis cuisine what was the most surprising thing that you learned about that? You learned about weed, cooking with weed while you were working on that show.
Speaker 2:Well, I think for me with Bon Appetit, it was always a challenge of how do we get it into every step of this recipe. It was kind of this competition we would have with ourselves is how many infusions can we do? So I was always being introduced to the newest products that, like, concentrate makers were coming up with, whether it was the water soluble cannabinoids, and then there's the nano. The nano, you know all of that stuff. I was kind of being introduced to it. But for me, one of the most surprising things I think cooking with the leaves, which are super iconic. They don't really hold any potency right. The trichomes are there to protect the sex organs, any potency right. The trichomes are there to protect the sex organs, the female sex organs, from predators, which doesn't really do a very good job because mine always get covered with bugs.
Speaker 2:But anyway, and now we're the predators, but some people would argue the plant has evolved to attract us Anyway. So for me the leaves, I was like, oh so I can cook with these and we're not going to really get high, but you have this beautiful like it tastes like perilla, and kind of playing with that. You can juice it, you can candy it, you can fry the leaves and it's kind of looking at it as a plant, not just for getting high or you know that effect, but also because it tastes good and it's you know, it's a, it's a delicious herb and it makes food taste better. And that's what I learned when I went to Thailand and I was cooking with edible makers and activists in Thailand is that for generations the Thai people have been using cannabis to make their food taste better. It was the original MSG, you know like we'll add a little bit, and then we'll want to eat more of this.
Speaker 1:So that's really cool and I like that you mentioned the leaves. Like when you're talking about leaves, you're talking like the fan leaves and stuff, not the trim and everything else.
Speaker 2:No sugar leaf will have trichomes on it because again, it's there to protect the flower, but the fan leaves not so much the roots. I cooked with the roots on Koh Tao in Thailand with KD and he used them medicinally. It's very good for your bowels, you know, for that IBS and those kind of things. I don't know, there's probably not any research on that, so don't totally quote me. It's funny.
Speaker 1:you mentioned that, though, because I have had been having discussions with people about the, about the root ball, like using the root ball in infusions and how they make really good topicals Because apparently they're really high in certain cannabinoids.
Speaker 2:So you know, I mean, if you have access to the plant might as well use it all right, that's how I that was one of the things with cooking on Bon Appetit I had access to the entire plant. You know before that I was really operating as an edible maker and so I would be given I started with cold water. Hash was really, when I kind of came on to where my edibles entered the next level of being able to have an excellent flavor and a very controlled dose, much easier to do with concentrates than it is to do with flour.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so variable.
Speaker 1:Right and I've been hearing that more and more recently that people are starting to work more with concentrates just because you can like they can be more potent as well, potent as well with less, and then it's easier to control the dosing well, you have to think the the amount of trichomes on flour will vary you know, depending.
Speaker 2:Whereas concentrates are just, ideally, it's just those trichomes, right? So, depending on the quality of hash or whatever concentrate you're using, you're going to either have more plant matter for a lower grade or less plant matter. And you're really just looking at those, the heads, right?
Speaker 2:You just want the trichome head for five-star hash. So, and then within my. So that's as an edible maker in the actual California regulated industry, you have to use concentrates. I don't know anyone who is working starting from flour, because it would be very difficult to dose accurately and the cost of failing is very expensive. You have to pay to destroy your batch. So you want to be accurate.
Speaker 2:Now the trend is for solventless full spectrum, so you're going to be wanting to use concentrates like hash or live rosin, which you know. Water, it's not a solvent, it's. You make it cold, so you get. You know how the cold water hash works. So as an edible maker, yes, I think that is the best way to dose For home cooks who might not have access to things like hash. Or maybe the laws are stricter if you do get caught holding concentrates. I remember before it was legal in California, if you had concentrates on you, you'd be in a lot of trouble in a lot of trouble. So I wrote this book for everyone, but also keeping in mind that a lot of people don't have access to things like live rosin Right.
Speaker 2:Some of my members are in, like New Zealand, where it's it's not legal at all, and they're growing in the middle of the woods, june, you know.
Speaker 1:so I try to be conscious.
Speaker 2:But then there's also a section in here on cooking with concentrates and it it it talks about it has a chart that says these concentrates are raw. These ones are already decarbed like RSO or full extract cannabis oil will be ready to go for you, and then all you need to do is have a good milligram scale, which can be one of those little black jewelry scales or a bigger one, so you can weigh your other ingredients too. I recommend one in my book. And then you whisk that concentrate into a warm fat right, because cannabinoids the resin likes fat most of all. If you have a very high proof alcohol, you can use that as well, but fat is the easiest thing to do. Heat it up a little bit, just warm enough to melt the resin into the oil or butter or whatever you're using, and then make sure it's nice and homogenized no glumps, no clumps of hash or anything, so people don't bite into a cookie.
Speaker 2:And then just you know it's dosing. It's easier to dose because you don't have to once it's already decarbed for you and you know that potency from a lab. You can just there's no calculation of loss, right? There's no having to calculate when I convert that THCA, which is the acidic form of THC, into THC, how much loss is going to happen Automatically? Already, 12.3%, that's what cannabis labs calculate for. And then on top of it you have to think of loss during the cooking process of like there's going to be some batter, say you're making cookies, there's going to be batter stuck to the bowl, there's going to be batter stuck to this. But all of that is going to deplete your, your overall calculation for THC in the batch. It's complicated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the math always gets complicated and I find that something that people find a little intimidating. And I mean, if you're just eating them yourself, that's one thing, but as soon as you start gifting them to people and giving them away, then that's when it really becomes important. But we'll come to that back to that in a second, especially the part about the concentrates, because, like I said, I've had a lot more people talking about that recently. But when you are in the process of developing a new infused recipe, where do you even start?
Speaker 2:I look for the fat in a recipe. So I'm looking where can I sneak an infusion in? So what part of this has fat? And some recipes will have fat throughout. So then I go, okay, which part is evenly distributed in this dish? Right? So say I was going to do. I remember one chef was doing a toffee and she, like, infused the chocolate. But the chocolate, like, if you were to do chocolate chips in a chocolate chip cookie, you wouldn't want to infuse the chocolate chips, even though you could, because there's fat chocolate. Because how do you guarantee each cookie gets the same amount of chocolate chips, right, you don't? Yeah?
Speaker 2:so you want to infuse the butter amount of chocolate chips, right, yeah, so you want to infuse the butter in a chocolate chip cookie, because then you can weigh it out. You know exactly how much dough is in each cookie. So, oops, sorry, my ear buds. So when I look at a recipe as far as, how do I infuse this? How do I turn this into an edible? That's one of the things I consider is that, where's their fat here? If there's not a fat, then I look for can I put an alcohol in here and in some way cook off the alcohol?
Speaker 2:Because the alcohol is just kind of a it's like a carrier for the cannabinoids, it doesn't really melt into it in the same way that it does in fat. Doesn't really melt into it in the same way that it does in fat. So that's where I'm going to take a tincture and I'll make. I have a cannabis sugar in my cookbook and with that sugar you can make all sorts of things. I haven't tried a meringue, though. I'm very curious if the weight of the cannabinoids, the resin, will weigh down the egg whites, and so you won't be able to do a meringue, right?
Speaker 2:So that's one of the ones I've kind of avoided because that's my. That's what I think will happen is they're not going to work, but always fun to try.
Speaker 1:You'll need to experiment with that and report back and see how it goes. But yeah. Now, are there any underappreciated ingredients that you find pair exceptionally well with cannabis?
Speaker 2:You know this will sound very American of me, but peanut butter is great. You know, very, very kind of. I don't want to say basic, but you either love peanut butter or you don't.
Speaker 2:And but the fat in it is really great, I've found and this is anecdotal so I haven't done. I wish I could do some research on it and like give people butter versus peanut butter and be like which one do you feel more? Um, but from my experience as an edible maker, when I put it into peanut butter, people tend to feel the high more it almost makes it more bioavailable.
Speaker 1:but don't again like no studies done on that, that's just been my some anecdotal evidence, yeah it's like holy cow, those peanut butter cups really smacked you know, yeah, and it goes really well with chocolate too and like, yes, it's. It's a nice ingredient as well, because it will mask the taste of cannabis, if you're not looking for that flavor. So, yeah, you know, peanut butter. I love peanut butter, not any, most nut butters, yeah. In fact, I usually don't buy almond butter because I like it too much and I you eat the whole thing yeah. I do, yeah. So I'm like maybe if I just don't buy it I'll be fine.
Speaker 2:But that's how I do it too. I'm like I don't buy this yeah.
Speaker 1:It's Now. Do strains even matter when it comes to edibles? And how would you say the home cook should work with terpenes? And in what context? And I know you talk a bit about this in the intro of your book as well.
Speaker 2:It's a loaded question. Yes, that's why.
Speaker 1:I asked.
Speaker 2:And you know no one can prove it right. How do you prove that terpenes when you eat them? They can't even prove it when we smoke them. Now people will argue like that's bullshit, and I hear them on that. But when we eat a food, we're also eating. Terpenes aren't just in cannabis, they're in our food as well.
Speaker 2:So, how do we control that? How much of a terpene when we we eat it is going to actually have an impact? So I guess my question would be for you what do you mean by? Do terpenes, do strains even matter? Do you mean as far as flavor, or do you mean as far as the effects of the edible?
Speaker 1:I'm probably first and foremost the effects, but also also the flavor, because I do see a lot of folks that will like use certain cultivars in a recipe and say, you know, the terpenes will lend itself well to this recipe. But then I'm like what?
Speaker 2:do you mean?
Speaker 1:yeah, like don't they all kind of through the whole process of decarb and infusing and baking and eating like what's left of that terpene at that point?
Speaker 2:I think it's an excellent question. It's definitely something that I've investigated as an edible maker, to the extent that I can. You know, I with it becoming more legal. Hopefully we'll be able to have studies. Although I've thought about it.
Speaker 2:I'm like, how would we figure this out, like if they actually do have an impact when we eat them? It just for me, our bodies are so complicated. When we smoke, it's one thing, it's going into our lungs and then into our bloodstream, into our brain. When we eat it, you know, some of it will sublingually get into our system, but then it has to go into our stomach and then it goes, our liver starts metabolizing it and, like you said, there's, there's before that, decarboxylation, which these terpenes are very volatile. So how many? How are you going to be preserving all of them through that process?
Speaker 2:Okay, then we're looking at doing a sous vide decarb, using sous vide to decarb to protect those terpenes, um, which some of them are still pretty volatile and will still evaporate, and you smell it when you decarb, you can smell them. And then, during the baking process, let's say, you don't bake, you make a salad, you make a salad dressing. Sure, okay, but then in that salad maybe you put some lemon juice in that dressing too. Now is the limonene in the lemon going to have an impact as well? I don't eat a lemon meringue pie and all of a sudden feel excited, even if I put a bunch of THC and other cannabinoids in it.
Speaker 2:The terpenes are the same, no matter if they're coming from cannabis or if they're coming from a lemon or if they're coming from rosemary. So I think you get into this tricky business of trying to, and that's not even taking into consideration how unique we are as individuals, right?
Speaker 2:So, you might not be able to eat chocolate after 4 pm because some of the compounds in chocolate might just excite you too much. Maybe the anandamide in chocolate, which is also an endocannabinoid, that we make the bliss molecule. Maybe that You're just too blissed out. You can't do it, I can eat chocolate at any point.
Speaker 2:I could wake up at 2 o'clock in the morning and eat chocolate and then go right back to bed. So we're all different with our bodies and I think when you start trying to prescribe people an effect with your edibles, you're giving yourself too much credit. That's what I think. However, strains are not just defined by terpenes. There's other compounds in them and some strains, like farm cut, has this royal blueberry and it's a one-to-one CBD to THC. If you're looking at the cannabinoids in a strain or a cultivar, then yes, that is something to take into consideration as far as how it's going to affect you, like how much THCV, like these new kind of minor cannabinoids that we're finding outside of THC and CBD. We have CBG, we have CBN, and now that one is one that you do not want if you're trying to stay awake.
Speaker 2:Right, it's going to give you the couch lock to stay awake, Right, it's going to give you the couch lock. Cbn is degraded THC. What happens is the hydrogen and THC binds with oxygen in the air to make H2O, aka water, and what we're left with is CBN, which is not great. If you want to party and I wouldn't serve it at like a cannabis.
Speaker 2:Want to party and and I wouldn't serve it at like a cannabis like I wouldn't have served CBN at a bong appetite dinner party, right, I I would give it to someone who's like I, can't go to sleep at night, like, try a CBN edible, something light, and figure out what dose works for you. So in that sense, and that wouldn't be strain specific right CBN can happen in any cultivar. So Right, it's really for me. That's what I focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so basically it's the difference between terpenes and cannabinoids. The terpenes don't matter as much necessarily. The cannabinoids obviously do. As a full CBD infusion, obviously it's going to have a very different effect than something THC, thc-v or any of these other minor cannabinoids.
Speaker 2:And how they're all mixed together. Now, as far as, like the entourage effect with all of those terpenes, does that impact how we feel in edible? I cannot speak to that because it is so complicated. I don't think anybody really can at this point, and I've looked into it. I know there are people who are trying to prove that. Good luck to them. I hope they figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tricky though, cause I see even in like the dispensaries, you go in and you look at the edibles and there'll be like a sativa edible or an indica edible, but that's already so binary I know, and kind of bullshit.
Speaker 2:It's bullshit, because sativa and indica, first of all, they have been spliced and diced so many times by these cultivators that no one can really say they have a pure, pure, pure sativa, pure, pure, pure indica. It's pretty much all hybrids. So there are some people who've really preserved those genetics and, you know, more power to them. But that's not what you're getting from these edible makers that are stamping indica and sativa on their edibles. So for me it's too binary and I think it's. You know, people will again expect a certain effect from taking that indica edible and I don't like to take that kind of responsibility on like you're going to feel this way.
Speaker 2:I'm like no, you're going to feel high, you know the edible high. It feels different than the smoking high. It lasts longer, it feels stronger. Might be more of like a body kind, of everyone's different. I can eat edibles and do an hour of yoga.
Speaker 1:other people eat edibles and they can't leave the couch, so yeah, well, a lot of the times that's also going to depend on the dosing as well. You know, if I'm going to do yoga, I'm going to do a lighter dose than if I'm, you know, flaking out on the couch watching a show. There's obviously different doses for different occasions as well. But is there a time when you might want to use, like, look at the terpenes in a particular cultivar and cause? I've always wondered as well. If I infused raw cannabis into an olive oil once, and I suppose if you tried that with different cultivars, maybe that would preserve some of the terpenes. But of course you're using that more for the flavor. Yeah, but you would get some like you don't need to decarboxylate it all the way.
Speaker 2:That's for the flavor, but you would get some like you don't need to decarboxylate it all the way. That's for the high.
Speaker 2:So if you're really trying to preserve some of those terpenes more, you would get that flavor, of course, and so when I cook with cannabis, that's definitely something I consider. Like with marigold sweets, I'm wanting to use something for a caramel that is going to have more of those fruity notes to it, like Sonoma Hills Farm has this cherry cheesecake that they're going to let me use some rosin for my next batch and that is going to lend those terpenes to that. Just like when we go and pick mint or thyme, there's different types of mint and thyme. There's chocolate, there's all sorts right English thyme, whatever. Depending on the recipe, I'm going to use different flavors in it. So there are savory and sweet recipes in this cookbook.
Speaker 2:You know there are some, some terpenes and some cultivars that really are versatile, that you don't have to worry about anything. With lemon, like super lemon haze, like the flavor is going to be good. I wouldn't use anything skunky or gassy per se. Great for smoking I love to smoke those kinds of strains but when you're cooking with it you're going to get those flavors, especially when you're dosing it potently. I dose lightly, but if you're really trying to pack a punch, you're going to get more of those flavors as well. So you want to be considering the, the terpenes.
Speaker 1:But that also maybe applied to some of the ones that smell like I don't know, some of the cheesy strains, or I have a friend that loves like the piss strains it loves.
Speaker 2:like the piss strains Someone would smell really gross. Yeah, they really like you smoke them and you're like Whoa, you know they smell for a reason. That plant is like get the hell away from my flower. So you know I get from a cooking perspective. You know, from a cooking perspective, I try to go with strains that I know are going to taste good as well, because it will impact the flavor.
Speaker 2:But I don't focus on it too heavily. If I'm being honest, I personally do not feel a difference when I use different strains. I just always most of the strains I'm using are high THC. Now if I were to use something that had more CBD or something else, maybe I'd feel a difference. I would just probably not feel as stoned. But I'm not as sensitive as some people. Some people swear by I only do Blue Dream edibles and whatever works for them. Then stick with what works for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nothing wrong with that, for sure. But I always love to ask people this question because it is a little controversial. But controversial is not the right. I mean, if that's the kind of controversy we're dealing with in the cannabis industry, then I think we're doing all right.
Speaker 1:But we're doing okay, yeah, now in your book you talk about something interesting around decarboxylation that I've that I would sort of. This was new for me, and so I hope we can talk about how you like to make a paper pouch when it comes to decarbing and why you like to do that, because this is something like I said that was. This is a new concept for me, but it makes sense.
Speaker 2:Um, so, more so than the paper pouch. I'm just trying, like I explained, that CBN process where you're trying to get rid of oxygen from the equation. If you take oxygen out of the equation, you don't have to worry about degrading your THC. Um, the the most obvious way of doing that is using a sous vide. To you know, heat it very slowly to protect the, the sticky resin from from sticking to the sous vide bag. I use parchment paper and I just create a little parchment pouch and I and if I'm doing it in the oven, it'll go into a stasher bag, which is that brand is oven safe, which is why I'm saying it. I'm not.
Speaker 1:Those are the silicone, the reusable silicone bags.
Speaker 2:And it's the stasher brand specifically is safe in the oven up to a certain temperature and decarb temperature is safe. So I roll those up, smash as much oxygen out as air as out as possible and then put it in the oven like with the pouch, the parchment pouch in the silicone. If I didn't put parchment, I'm trying not to waste any of those trichomes right. I don't want any of them to stick to that silicone and it will as it heats up. It will as it heats up, it will and over time I'm sure if you use your stasher without parchment or use whatever without parchment, you could see that resin built up. Like as you trim plants.
Speaker 2:You get the hash on your hands. It just takes time to see those tiny little trichomes. It's kind of a protection thing than just throwing it onto a pan and tossing it in the oven, because that's really going to expose it to oxygen and heat like blasts of heat, which is where you're going to get that CBN. So it's like an extra step. Again, it's an expensive herb. Is it totally necessary? You're probably fine skipping it, but I just like to kind of give this plant the respect that it deserves.
Speaker 1:At what the price that it costs, because I like that idea too, because sometimes people do find it when they make edibles. It can make them creepy and that could just be because you know it's being degraded and converting into that CBN, which is maybe not what they're looking for, and this little extra step might help them avoid that process and make their edibles more impactful and less tired, like make them less tired.
Speaker 2:They might be using old weed too. I think people kind of hold on to to flour and they're like, oh, I don't know, I'll just make some edibles out of this, and it might be a year or two old, and then they're still decarbing. Decarboxylation will happen the minute that plant gets cut down or if it's just left to die in the woods or whatever. It will start decarboxylating because THC is the stable form. Thca is acidic, so it's going to start that decarboxylation process at room temperature.
Speaker 2:We just want to speed it up because we don't want to wait around and we want to convert as much of that THCA as possible because we're trying to get as much high as possible. So they might already have THC like a good amount and then they're decarbing it still and then it's degrading it to cbn. So I you know, I think there's there's different ways to kind of protect and store flour. So you're not you're going to avoid those things. And then there's times to just kind of look at some, some bud and just be like hey, this is my sleepy time, weed, and I'm gonna go to bed yeah just be aware of that.
Speaker 1:So would people in that particular instance then be better off like decarbing and then like, if they have a lot of weed, that they're going to make edibles with it eventually anyway? Would they be better off decarbing at first and then storing it decarbed already, instead of to avoid some of that degradation that you're talking about?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I would have to do lab testing on it. My instinct is no. My instinct would just kind of they'd have to like plan, they'd have to be like okay this weed I'm going to. Most people just kind of forget that they have some weed and they're like I'm going to throw it into some butter and make some edibles with it. We can run more experiments on it. That's. I'm going to throw it into some butter and make some edibles with it. We can run more experiments on it. That's all I'm about.
Speaker 2:I love running experiments, this whole book was like hundreds of experiments that I just was like I don't know. I guess I'll run some testing on it. I think that's the best place we can come from is like staying curious and being able to say, well, I don't, I don't know. So why don't we investigate and see what would be the best way to go about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd be curious about that myself, just because I do tend to decarb, like not huge amounts but larger amounts, so that I have it decarbed ready for when I want to make an infusion, because I like it just cuts down the time. If you can like do a batch and then have it ready to use, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think the best thing you could do is decarb and infuse at the same time, because then you have that oil around it and I found what I did run testing on infusion and decarboxylation at the same time and it almost it protects the cannabinoids. So it takes a lot longer for it to do once it's submerged in a fat, which for me. I'm trying to cut time I don't. I think you're like me in that you don't like to spend like hours stirring a pot on the stove.
Speaker 2:If you can take half that time, you will.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's where this book is coming from. It's like I want to know are there shortcuts? Are there ways for me to do it faster? Does it make sense to decarboxylate and infuse at the same time?
Speaker 2:To me it doesn't, because you're going to be putting that plant matter in a fat and heating it in that fat, just like tea, gets bitter as you steep it for a long time you're going to pull more of that chlorophyll, more of those bitter plant flavors not just the terpenes, all of the other stuff that's in the cannabis plant into that oil while you're decarbing. You probably could infuse and then continue to decarb after you take the plant matter out, but again it's just like taking longer for me in my opinion, for no reason.
Speaker 2:So that's something to consider is like, if you're going to do a batch decarb, do a batch infusion right after, and you're going to look at this book and you're going to see how, see how long it takes to infuse, and it's gonna blow your mind.
Speaker 1:you're gonna be like, yeah, shorter, well I admitted I said a lot of your infusion times were shorter than what I was accustomed to and admittedly, I do have infusion devices at home, of course. Well, just from doing this show for however many years, but I mean that changes how you might set the temperatures on some of those devices too, based on some of these like tests that you were running, what you were finding, the longer isn't necessarily better. That's basically what you're finding that you don't extract more THC from your cannabis. Yeah, yeah, which is counterintuitive almost.
Speaker 2:I think that's kind of that was one of the biggest things. That from writing this book, um and this was really brought on from my club, the edibles club, was they? You know, at them my patrons asking me questions, me not being able to answer them, and I'm like, well, I'm going to find out, and so, and me asking questions on Bon Appetit and then people not being able to tell me, and then I'm like, well, we need to find this, we need to figure this out, Right, and so that was one of the biggest things. And how quickly butter infuses. You know, 50% of that infusion happens in the first 30 seconds.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's wild Like a straight line yeah you're not going to get the rest of the 50% in the next 30 seconds. It takes longer for that that other potency to come out. But you don't need to do it for two days, like some of the recipes I see online are like nine hours in a crock pot. I'm like at that point you're just making soup Like you're making a green sludge.
Speaker 1:Well, and it does end up looking really green as well. The results, and I think people associate that green color with more potent potency infusion.
Speaker 2:It's not Right? Yeah, I don't look at green.
Speaker 2:I don't look at green cold water hash and think this is a better hash. Our goal is the same as when making hash we're taking we're trying to strip the trichomes off. That's it Right For me. Personally, I know that some people want the other compounds in the cannabis plant because they believe that it has other health benefits, et cetera. I am not of that school. I am in the school of getting people high. I'm not a medical professional, so I don't really dole out advice on that kind of stuff, other than, hey, I've heard it helps you sleep and I've heard it helps with pain.
Speaker 1:It's a fun time.
Speaker 2:So for me it's really like how do I do this quickly and from a flavor perspective, how do I preserve, how do I make sure this tastes good while I don't let it steep in in the butter or the oil or make a tincture? For 30 days I ran lab testing on that. I did a room temperature tincture and a tincture made in the freezer to see what, and I shook it every day and did all of this stuff. It does not matter that time is not the variable, it's temperature and it is agitation.
Speaker 2:And for alcohol, it's going to be the proof that you use the amount of ethanol, because ethanol is the solvent Um and and for for butters and oils. The butter is acting as the solvent, the trichomes, like the butter, it's just melting it right off the plant. So how do we help it melt? We stir it up, we agitate it, and that's what they'll do in a lab. Is they'll for alcohol? They get those jewelry I almost considered putting this in the book they get those jewelry cleaners and they put ethanol in it. And then you can put whatever we you know decarbed flower with the agit, the shake, the you know supersonic shaking, whatever agitator, it will shake all of those trichomes off into the ethanol.
Speaker 2:So if you really wanted to like now that you could get a jewelry cleaner and do it that way, yeah, so for me I was. I just wanted people to understand what the goal is here. The goal from my book and from my perspective is get those trichomes off and then from there, you want to keep doing stuff with that plant matter. By all means, knock yourself out, throw it into some meatballs, throw it into whatever you want.
Speaker 1:But that also, I guess, means that when somebody is using using, whether they're doing it on the stove or in a device, if they can change the temperature on the device, the temp, not necessarily the temperature but the time then it might be worth considering doing that the device as long as it's agitating.
Speaker 2:That's my problem with the device. If it's just sitting there and your plant isn't moving, that means so it's like you have, like I think of it like I'm washing, say you're washing. That's how we describe it washing like you're washing, yeah, you're trying to wash those trichomes off. You don't wash. Your washing machine doesn't sit still right. It, yeah, yeah, moves, right. Move, so that those molecules, so the atoms, whatever, if you want to get really sciency. They melt off, they shake off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it gets them off of the plant.
Speaker 1:So, basically, if someone's looking for a device and they should look for one that includes magitation when it's infusing.
Speaker 2:If you like a device I talk about this in the book too. I don't like a single use device. For me, a double boiler is. I can make that at home and it works just as well. And since it doesn't take very, it's not taking me hours to infuse, it's only taking me, like I think, for the butter it took 30,. What did I say? 30 minutes or 30 minutes.
Speaker 2:Right, I don't want to have to set up a whole device and my kitchen is tiny. I don't want to have another thing in my kitchen personally, but I understand people like to kind of set something and forget it and go on. If there is a feature that it will agitate, that will help. If you have a slow cooker, so you want to set your crock pot to a certain temperature and because you don't want to have to worry about a flame on the stove, although the depth, the point of a double boiler is, the water keeps the temperature static. You know, um, just stir it, just make sure you're stirring it so that's what you need to do is to swerve.
Speaker 2:Heat agitation, fat that's it. It's not rocket science that squeezes much of the butter out of the flour as you can. You're not going to be able to get it all out. Some people like get press. You know they go really extreme to try and get every drop of butter out.
Speaker 2:Knock yourself out. There will be a little bit of potency left in the butter because it's physically impossible to get every drop out. So you can use it. It's not going to have too much, but if you're really sensitive you can throw it into something. Just try to pick recipes. When you're using flour straight and some of my recipes in the book do that you want to make sure you're using a recipe with a lot of other flavors and textures.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I say meatballs because meatballs have garlic and Parmesan and ricotta and all of these other delicious and tomato sauce. You know all of these things where you're not going to be like am I eating weed? If I put it into a snickerdoodle. I just throw some refuse butter you know buttery weed into a snickerdoodle.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bite into that and be like gross you know, too much else to distract your product from from no meatballs is definitely a perfect example. And back to the peanut butter too, because peanut butter is a strong flavor that it's going to mask that that firecrackers.
Speaker 2:That's where firecrackers come in with that. Avb, avb will have a little bit of CBN. I mean it depends, right Depends how old your flower was when you first vaped it. But on Reddit someone posted lab results from AVB and there was a little bit of THC in it, a little bit decarbed, and that's kind of the same idea of using weed that's already been infused into butter. There'll be a little bit of potency there, so just throw it into something with, like, yeah, peanut butter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is super easy to do. But I mean, you kind of already touched on this before, but how do you approach cooking with concentrates? Because once again, I've had a lot of people asking about that recently.
Speaker 2:I love cooking with concentrates. That's really what set me apart as an edible maker was getting my hands on some cold water hash. Decarboxylation was not even a word I knew at the time and it wasn't a word on mine. This is like 2010, right?
Speaker 2:So, I just I figured it out, I don't know how I put it in the oven. I was like, oh, look at it's bubbling, oh, that's interesting. And then I put it into my caramel and people were like, oh, this felt really good, it felt stronger, it felt, and I was like, great.
Speaker 2:I can stretch my hash a little bit by heating it up beforehand and then putting into the caramel, cause the caramel would decarb the hash a little bit by heating it up beforehand and then putting into the caramel, because the caramel would decarb the hash a little bit without pre-decarbing it because it goes up to a high enough temperature. But doing it a little bit beforehand helped. Um so, cooking with concentrates they're potent. You need a milligram scale. There's no using one of those basic kitchen scales. It has to be a milligram scale. You can use a jewelry scale. You can get one of the bigger ones that I have that they use in labs. I like them because you can measure your flour like cannabis flour and your flour like baking flour all on the same machine.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm big on less machines in my house just because I don't have enough space. And then knowing the potency if it's not decarbed or not, there's kind of a lot to think about. When you're cooking with concentrates, it depends on the concentrate that you're using. That's why I put a chart in the book that's like this is the average potency. This is whether or not you need to decarboxylate and just trying to dose responsibly. There's a chapter called A Formula for an Ethical Dose and it's like the first thing I said in this conversation no one eats one brownie, so it's really how much?
Speaker 2:of something someone's going to eat and giving them the grace to be able to eat more of something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a big proponent of that too. Just because I know myself, and that's how I am I never eat just one, it's insulting.
Speaker 2:when you see a bag of chips and they're like serving size five chips, I'm like who?
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I know Right. Nobody eats five chips. It's ridiculous, yeah. So as far as cooking with concentrates, then there are certain ones that you would decarb. You mentioned, like the RSO and FICO. You wouldn't need to decarb because it's already been decarbed, and then you could just use some of that concentrate in a fat, mix it up really well and then you use. Or you could probably also put it right in some recipes too, could you not?
Speaker 2:You just want to make sure you homogenize it, because it's so potent, so you want to make sure it's being distributed evenly throughout the recipe, so like if you were to do and I talk about candies.
Speaker 1:Like I find they lend themselves, lend themselves well to candies. Would you find that that's one you could add concentrates to pretty directly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it depends on the candy Most like gummies and things like that will still homogenize it into a coconut oil to make sure it's not gonna like stay in a clump in the candy um or or mct oil, whatever they want to use.
Speaker 2:Um caramel has a lot of fat in it, so I still I could just plop it right into the pot while it's cooking, but just for my peace of mind of knowing that it's evenly distributed, I still whisk it into a warm butter. Some people will use lecithin. I don't love the taste of lecithin and I haven't really seen anything that is convincing that it helps bioavailability, other than, like what people say. I haven't like seen studies. I understand the thought process behind why it's believed to increase bioavailability, but I haven't seen any convincing studies that are proving that it does that For cannabinoids which are operating on our CB1, cb2 receptors?
Speaker 2:you know what I mean. Like it's it's not quite there for me yet to be like, yes, put less of that, you know, put less of that in. I think it helps to, can help to distribute it, or it's an emulsifier, so it's going to help.
Speaker 1:Right, which is sort of how I've used it before as an emulsifier, not necessarily for a bio availability, though. I have heard that lots of times, but it's hard to know when you're eating something. Is it more available? Is it more available or not than the other thing that I made? I don't know, I'm high, so that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how I feel about it yeah, I think, though, with like some drinks, if you wanted to use a less than I. Just personally don't like the flavor of it I find I've tried, like I soy and I've tried the sunflower lecithin and I find it gives it kind of like this dusty flavor which is not super appealing to me. But to each their own, Um, what were we talking about?
Speaker 1:Oh, just concentrates.
Speaker 2:I think I was asking about putting them in candy in particular, but yeah, and so like distillate is a pretty common concentrate that people use and that's going to be just distilled cannabinoids, it's not going to be full spectrum. And then there's also like things that are using BHO, you know, like live resin, which is using the flash frozen flour, but it's resin, so it's washing it with butane or ethanol, whatever they want, to solvent that they want to use and some people have problems with those solvents.
Speaker 2:You know, it's kind of like the seed oil discussion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, it's complicated, right?
Speaker 2:I personally use seed oil all the time and haven't seen anything convincing otherwise. I think everything in moderation and like you know, I don't think eating tallow is somehow going to be better for me, but kind of that same idea with concentrates. People have a problem with using butane to strip those terichomes off. But it has benefits, right, it preserves those terpenes better they get like topier concentrates when they use butane.
Speaker 2:So there's always, you know, there's pros and cons with everything. For my brand, because of the ethos of Marigold Sweets, I use solventless full spectrum single strain so I can tell people. If people are very, I only like the strain. I can say well, this is the strain.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, and I think too, with the BHO, people just have that concern as to like, obviously you don't want to have any residual solvents left over, and that's the main concern, I would think, with using that. Otherwise. I mean, have at it, it's going to be great, it's complicated, I know because I don't know what to say to people Like.
Speaker 2:My instinct is to say like, yeah, let's not. We don't know if we're going to burn off all of that BHO and there's not going to be, like you said, residual solvents. But sorry, my dog found her sloth. I'm going to have to take it from her and hide it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can hear it a little bit, but I mean switching gears a little bit, because I mean we're obviously talking about concentrates, which can give you a pretty potent edible if you want to go that direction, and I do have listeners that definitely prefer high potency edibles, but I also know a lot of people that are really sensitive and low dose and microdosed edibles. I'm hearing talk talked about a lot more now as well, and do you see this as a trend shaping, shaping the future of cannabis edibles moving forward?
Speaker 2:A thousand percent. That's my book how to eat weeded and have a Good Time. It's that. Second part of the book is about microdosing. I've met so many people that don't touch edibles because one time they had a bad experience because someone threw like an ounce into a stick of butter and they're like I don't know, I can smoke, I smoke this much. I'll just do that and put it in a dozen cookies. I've done that. I've dosed myself too heavily before.
Speaker 1:I've done it to myself too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it feels like the walls are melting and like you're never going to feel normal again and every kind of anxiety.
Speaker 1:That heart attack feeling which is not a good time, that heart attack feeling which is not a good time?
Speaker 2:No, it's not a good time and so microdosing, because edibles take longer to kick in than smoking when we smoke. That feeling happens pretty quickly With edibles because we have to go through all of these systems in our body, right, our stomach first. We're going to eat it, then we're going to swallow it and go down our stomach and then our liver liver's got to do this whole thing. People are impatient. We're used to, you know, we're used to taking a shot and feeling drunk and I mean for me, I'm like pretty quickly and I'm like, yeah, um, because edibles take longer, people kind of get cocky and they also they it. They taste good. Yeah, they taste good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you're like I want another one.
Speaker 2:That's right. So and you're like, well, I don't feel anything, I'll be fine, and you kind of underestimate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like it's that um, these edibles ain't shit kind of mentality, because they just don't know and they're like, ah, it's nothing's going to happen, and then it happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause the cookie is disarming. You're like, yes, cookie cookies not going to do anything to me, whereas like a fiery shot or something given to you by like a rough and tumble bartender, you're like, ooh, you know, you kind of know what you're in for. A cookie doesn't usually mean, you know, being glued to the couch. So as edible makers, and especially as this plant becomes more and more legal in more states and in more countries, we have a responsibility to dose people ethically and to do it with consideration. I think that really comes down to education and understanding things like what's in this book, like how many milligrams on average are in a gram of wheat. Okay, it is going to have about 200 milligrams of THC after decarboxylation. That's what we're looking at.
Speaker 2:A lot of people can't have more than five milligrams. So we're talking about 40 doses in one gram of flour and people will throw in an eighth and I get that mindset. You're like it's just, it's not even. It's nothing. It's a gram, that's nothing. Okay, well, it's not nothing, it's a lot. Well, it's not nothing, it's a lot. So microdosing first starts with understanding the potency of the ingredient that you're cooking with and then also taking into consideration because this is something that is popcorn is someone going to eat and then dosing it based on that serving size? Okay, if I know someone is going to eat at least three cookies, I want these cookies to maybe be 1.5 milligrams each, so you know that compound, and then someone doesn't have to feel bad if they eat three cookies, because we're human.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, although I've taken the track now to infuse the cookies, or whatever I'm making, to my dose so that I don't eat more than one, because I have a horrible sweet tooth. So that's my method, because I have eaten too many before and then been like why did I do that? I knew how strong they were, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't have that self-control, so I'm just honest with myself. Like I made brownies the other day, and you know they pack a punch, and so I just but I can eat three of them and still go about my day, you know, but I can eat three of them and still go about my day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's nice too, because then you can tailor the dose that you're consuming in one session to what you have to do. Like, are you going to eat three brownies if you have to run a bunch of errands? Maybe you'll just need one in that instance, so it gives you more flexibility with what you're doing.
Speaker 2:A microdose yes, you can always eat more of them and if you want to be healthy about it, say you're like, okay, you don't want to eat too many cookies. Cannabis can go in anything. I've got a hummus recipe in here. Make yourself some hummus and you can get stoned and have like a healthy I don't know. Go for a walk or something, or then go for a hike, be out in nature. I think this, the thinking outside of the brownie, is is good.
Speaker 2:And if you want to kind of tailor this book, we'll teach you how to infuse everything. If you are gluten-free if you are vegan. The basic, the basis. There are recipes for everyone, but the basic information you're going to get in the beginning of the book, which is how to infuse quickly, how to decarb in different ways, that can be applied to any recipe.
Speaker 1:Right Now. Are there any misconceptions about cannabis edibles that you wish would die?
Speaker 2:Well, I think we've kind of covered it as far as the indica versus sativa. I think that's kind of a very simplified way of looking at it. I also think a lot of people are like, oh, I don't do edibles, I'll just smoke a joint and eat a cookie, and I'm like, well, you don't know what the difference is between Delta 9 THC and 11 hydroxy THC, and that's okay. But don't come into our lane, let us do what we do.
Speaker 1:You do what you do.
Speaker 2:Don't come into our lane. Let us do what we do, you do what you do. Um, like, they're just totally different things. So it's not as simple as I'll just bake a batch of cookies and smoke a joint. It's like fine, you'll be smoking another joint in 15 minutes, whereas if I had an infused cookie. I'd be stoned for hours, which? Is my goal.
Speaker 1:And that's what I like too. Now, just as we're getting to the close today, a couple more questions around just navigating the cannabis industry as a woman. Have you had any particular challenges? I?
Speaker 2:don't know anyone else who's like. Maybe I'm sure other women in the industry or in sciences can talk about this. And I'm not a scientist, I'm just a. I'm a cookbook, not just. I'm a other women in the industry or in sciences can talk about this, and I'm not a scientist, I'm just a. I'm a cookbook, not just. I'm a cookbook author. I'm very curious. I ran a lot of lab tests for this book and I have a lot of bros who are just like let me see the white papers. When I say things like oh, are you serious?
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I would love that. I would love for this to be studied on that level. I think for a cookbook, this is pretty groundbreaking, the information that's in. Here I'm trying to help home cooks so they're not wasting time, so they're being efficient and they're dosing responsibly. I think that people kind of get prickly about this because they've been in this industry, that's been kind of in, stayed hidden for a long time and everyone thinks they know everything about this topic, this plant. And here I am coming in and I'm like Hi, no, you actually don't need to infuse that long and it for some reason it pisses people off, Right, Pisses bros off. It's never. I very rarely have a woman coming in my comments and being like you don't know anything.
Speaker 1:No, I hear that not just in the cannabis industry but sort of across industries as well, that it's women are typically very supportive, Typically, generally yeah.
Speaker 2:Generally, and then usually I get mansplained to by by guys and I'm like this is literally what I do. I've spent the better part of five years researching and trying to answer these questions to the best of my capability. Do I wish there were two or three other people that would? That's what it would take to be a real scientific study. Right Is to have it pure tested and who else is doing what I'm doing. I invite them to come and do it and prove further. Prove this is right.
Speaker 2:I ran the test multiple times right, I didn't just do butter and go okay, we this is what happened I got. I was so surprised by the results on infusion of butter. I ran it three times and like each time I was like okay, I don't know enough, I need to start, I need to do the test more thoroughly. I need to test the flour after I need to do this. I need to make sure we're restarting the butter every time so I'm not pulling from. You know, like really expensive and kooky, like obsessive. So it's a little insulting when these guys who've never did any testing ever, are like let me see this.
Speaker 2:I'm like no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And honestly, I've been making edibles, for I mean, I've had this show for five years. I've started making edibles before that. I discovered them later in life. But I'm always learning new things, and I learned new things from your book too.
Speaker 2:So thank you, I'm always learning new things. That's how we should stay.
Speaker 1:We should right, yes, always be learning. Yes, yeah. Now, vanessa, what would surprise people about you?
Speaker 2:What would surprise people about me? I know I saw that question. I was like I don't know what would be surprising about me. I'm pretty opinionated, so I feel like people know. So I feel like people know most of how I feel about things. Whoops, I really thought. I thought I had an answer for this.
Speaker 1:What is surprising If you don't? Maybe there's a hobby that you have or something that would surprise people. I've had a few people mention hobbies that would be like, oh you're into that, that's surprising.
Speaker 2:But I guess chess. I don't think that I just got into chess, so don't hold me to that.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, not at all, I love puzzles.
Speaker 2:I love chess. I'm very into learning new languages, and so that's when I say like I like to be a student.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm always trying to learn something new and challenge myself in that way, because we can kind of get stuck in our box and we don't learn new skills Right, what language?
Speaker 1:are you learning?
Speaker 2:Well, I've been learning Spanish for a long time because I'm in. Los Angeles, studied French for a while, but it's the accent is killer. Italian, obviously, but right now Spanish is the one that I really want to feel conversational enough. I'm kind of there, I'm in Los Angeles. I feel like you should speak Spanish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you probably have lots of opportunities to practice and I feel you on all that stuff because I'm learning German and that's because I have a couple of German friends so I can speak with them. It's a lot slower than I anticipated when I started years ago, but you know it takes time, it does, yeah, and it is good for the brain.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the things that I've learned. When I was younger, I used to work with you know, elderly and just keeping your brain active, staying moving a lot. I definitely. I think, probably like health. I try not to be too much in that lane because people are really kooky about that right now but exercise, keeping your brain active. You know, food is medicine, cannabis is medicine, so all of that kind of works together in a healthy lifestyle.
Speaker 1:So yeah Well, vanessa, you have written a beautiful book. I have my copy here too. There there's so many recipes I want to try. The peach creamsicles really spoke to me, and maybe that's because I've been, you know, coming through a cold, dark winter, and I'm thinking of spring and summertime. But you've written a beautiful book, and where can people find you out in the world?
Speaker 2:I am on Instagram Vanessa Marigold, same on threads, vanessa Marigold on YouTube, and that's where all the fun stuff happens, because YouTube is actually um more open to cannabis than meta.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I'm on blue sky and Twitter, but I don't, you know, let's not support the billionaires. Um and Patreon as the edibles club. You can join my club on Patreon. It's really cool. You have a direct line to me. So if you ever have any edible questions, I'm right there and I'm like what do you need? What do you want to infuse? I'll help you out. That's the plan.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, I'll make sure all that stuff is in the show notes so people can find it. And, vanessa, thank you so much for joining me today. It's been a real pleasure.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. I can't wait to see the show and I hope we get to meet in person one day.
Speaker 1:I would love that. Thank you.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:That was amazing. I hope you got as much out of that conversation with Vanessa as I did and I would love to hear what your biggest takeaway was from that conversation. Share it with me and I'll share it on a future episode. And, of course, check out Vanessa's brand new book how to eat weed and have a good time. I'll link to it in the show notes so you can find it easily and consider sharing this episode with another edibles enthusiast in your life, because they will certainly learn something from this one as well. As always, you can always check, look for my recommendations on the Margaret Recommends page and consider joining the Bite Me Cannabis Club, where cannabis lovers connect, learn and create together. Head to joinbitemecom to learn more, and with that, my friends, I am. Create together. Head to joinbytemecom to learn more and with that, my friends, I am your host. Margaret, until next week, stay high.
